Considering its slightly jacked up specs and improved hardware, perhaps we can already consider the Samsung Galaxy Y Duos as a successor to the highly successful Samsung Galaxy Y.

In hindsight, the previous Galaxy Y is a bestseller mainly because of its ultra-affordable price tag of PhP 5,700. The next generation Galaxy Y Duos has a more expensive price point of PhP 8,990. But its main selling proposition is that it is the first Samsung Android smartphone to have dual-SIM capabilities. TechPinas received a review unit and I would like to share to all TP friends my experience using it. In a summary, these are the strengths and limitations of the new model --

Strengths:

Solid build quality

Impressive battery life

Responsiveness

Excellent phone call reception

Ease of transitioning from 1 SIM to another

Pinch to Zoom Enabled

Value for money

Limitations:

Screen Resolution

Camera

No Camera Flash

No Adobe Flash

Let's discuss SGYDuos' key features in detail:

Design and Build Quality

The full touch screen smartphone has an exterior construction that uses a solid metal frame surrounding the front and has rounded corners. It fits comfortably in one’s hand. The detachable shiny plastic back cover encloses the battery, SIM card slots and Micro SD. The phone has the following ports and control buttons:

In front, you'll find the touchscreen, the earpiece, the physical home button at the bottom flanked by two capacitive keys, (back and menu). Similar to the previous Galaxy Y, the capacitive keys are not backlit.

Nothing at the rear but the microphone pinhole and the microUSB 2.0 port.

Finally, at the back, we can find the 3.15 MegaPixel fixed focus camera with no flash.

User Interface and Functionality

The Samsung Galaxy Y Duos uses the standard Touchwiz UI overlay on Android version 2.3.6 Gingerbread. It is an easy-to-learn Android 'experience', really. The home screen is navigated using a side-swiping gesture. Overall, I find the scrolling and transitions to be surprisingly smooth, considering that this is an entry-level Android. The phone also supports multi-touch gestures when navigating through the panels.

Messaging

The onscreen keys of the device are moderately responsive. I recommend texting on the Galaxy Y Duos in the landscape orientation to be able to use the larger QWERTY keys.

Dual SIM capability

Switching from one SIM to another for calling and texting is quick and easy; It is just a 2 step procedure. First, swipe the top portion of the screen downwards to access the drop down menu. Second, from the menu, select the SIM card (SIM 1 or SIM 2) you are going to use. Easy as that. One will also find that calls or texts are labelled as 1 or 2 accordingly so the user would not be confused.

Phonecall Reception

The Galaxy Y Duos is surprisingly excellent for phone calls. I’ve used the phone for sending and receiving calls for several days. The voice from the other line sounded clear and audible. The speaker on the other end also told me that I had loud and clear voice output.

Internet Browsing

Internet browsing on the Galaxy Y Duos is satisfactory. When using a stable internet connection, the phone loads websites quickly. The phone doesn’t support Adobe Flash, but fortunately, accessing an embedded Youtube video on a website redirects me to the mobile version of Youtube. One good feature of the phone is the ability to pinch-to-zoom while using the browser. One would find it especially useful because the unit is only equipped with a low-resolution screen.

Apps and Games

The user of the Galaxy Y Duos can be assured of smooth gameplay on the most popular mobile games such as Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Drag Racing, etc. But I could not seem to find Blood and Glory in the market. Android Market seems to screen out specs intensive games and apps for entry-level handsets.

Music

The phone uses the standard Samsung Music Player, which categorizes the music into Artists, Albums, Songs, and Playslists. The phone has decent speaker loudness and clarity.

Camera

The camera is one department where SGYDuos can be deemed underwhelming, which is understandable considering that this is an entry level smartphone. The unit is only equipped with a 3.15MP camera and does not have an LED flash. The picture samples that I’ve taken are slightly noisy and not sharp. The colors are also not vibrant. On the plus side, the camera features a fast shutter speed, allowing the user to shoot quick snapshots. Here are sample pictures from the phone.

Shooting videos is quite decent with its camera. Although the videos lack detail and vibrancy, the video output does not have many stutters. The Galaxy Y Duos captures QVGA video at 24 fps. Here is a sample:

Battery Life

The Galaxy Y Duos presents an impressive battery life. The unit lasted one day and a half with moderate use. That’s approximately using the phone for calls and texts the entire day, and about 1.5 hours for internet browsing and social networking.

Although the Samsung Galaxy Y Duos is about Php 3,000 more expensive than the original, I think it is well worth the price. The Samsung Galaxy Y Duos does not intend to compete with the ultra-budget phone category where the Galaxy Y obviously reigns, but rather targets a different market profile: the dual-SIM users who want to upgrade to the Samsung Android experience.

There are different ways to take advantage of the handsets dual SIM capabilities. Here are the different uses I can think of:

Budget-conscious people can use it to take advantage of unlimited promos.

Maintaining 2 separate lines for business and personal use.

For OFWs who can maintain a local SIM to keep in touch with family and friends in the Philippines and another for overseas use.

For unlimited mobile data SIM card on one slot, another for call and text. Unlimited smartphone use for a lot cheaper rates.

This is the first dual-SIM Samsung Android phone in the Philippines. Although there are other dual-SIM brands that are slightly cheaper, the Samsung Galaxy Y Duos features a better build quality, faster performance and ease of use.

TP Contributing Writer Profile: Mon Arguelles is a graduate of Environmental Management, a joint program of the Ateneo De Manila University and University of San Francisco. He’s currently taking up his MBA. He is a part-time professor and environmental researcher but considers being updated about the latest technological trends to be one of his favorite pastimes.